The speaker pro tempore on this vote, the yeas are 234, the nays are 185, the resolution is adopted. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition . Mr. Hastings i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h. R. 3590. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Pursuant to House Resolution 470 and rule 18, the chair declares the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for consideration of h. R. 3590. The chair appoints the gentleman from florida, mr. Nugent, to preside over the committee of the whole. The chair will the house come o order. The house of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for consideration of h. R. 3590, which the clerk will report by title. The clerk a bill to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational Hunting Fishing and shooting and for other purposes. The chair pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read for the first time. The gentleman from washington, mr. Hastings, and the gentleman from oregon, mr. Defazio, each will control 30 minutes. The house will come to order. The committee come to order. The chair will members take their conversations off the floor so the committee can come o order. Will members take their conversations off the floor so the committee can come to order. The chair the committee will come to order. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. Mr. Hastings i yield myself uch time as i may consume. Mr. Chairman, the supports mens heritage and enhancement act, h. R. 3590 is a package of eight bills that protects americas sportsmen to fish and hunt from unjustified bureaucratic restrictions and remove government roadblocks on certain public lands and guard against new regulations that threaten hunting and fishing. This is a bipartisan bill and cosponsored by the republican and democrat chairs of the congressional sportsmen caucus, mr. Latta of ohio and mr. Thompson of mississippi and mr. Wittman of virginia and mr. Walz of minnesota. Mr. Been check of michigan, mr. Gibbs of ohio, mr. Hunter of california, mr. Miller of florida and mr. Young of alaska all deserve credit for leadership on these important issues. Mr. Chairman, the house the committee is not in order. The chair the gentleman is correct. The house will come to order the committee will come to order. The gentleman is recognized. Mr. Hastings mr. Chairman, this legislation ensures that america americas ability to fish and hunt will not be limited by the whim of federal bureaucrats. Title 1 of this bill directly responds to bureaucratic threats posed by the e. P. A. In 1976, congress barred the Environmental Protection agency or e. P. A. , from regulating firearms and ammunition. However, this has not stopped attempts to circumvent the law by claiming that while e. P. A. May not be able to regulate ammunition, it can regulate components of ammunition and fishing tackle. This would be a massive power grab by the e. P. A. Despite Legal Authority. Banning lead bullets and tackle would hinder sportsmen and cause economic harm to outdoor sportsmen and the recreation industry. This legislation ensures that the e. P. A. Does not, does not, mr. Chairman, have the e. P. A. To regulate ammunition and fishing. Title 2 of this bill makes more funding available to states for longer period of time to create and maintain shooting ranges, which preserves american tradition. Title 3 would direct the secretaries of agriculture and interior to allow with a permit, commercial filming on federal lands for crews of five or fewer. This permit would ensure fair return to the taxpayer in exchange for use of their lands. Title 4 of this bill would allow for the importation of legallytaken polar bear hunting trophies from canada through no fault of the sportsmen can be trapped in a bureaucratic limbo. This is focused squarely on resolving existing permits and does not open the door to any future imports. The next two titles of the bill would allow sportsmen across the country to obtain a federal duck stamp and would protect lawabiding individuals constitutional right to bear arms on land owned by the army corps engineers. Heritage Council Advisory committee, in order to protect the rights of sportsmen while finding balance between common sense and conservation. And last title is requiring federal land managers who support and facilitate use for access for hunting, fishing on Forest Service and blm land. It protects sportsmen from the federal government to block hunting and fishing activities by implementing an open until closed management policy. However, mr. Chairman, it does not prioritize hunting and fishing over other multiple uses of public lands. Mr. Chairman, hunting, fishing and recreational shooting or longstanding american traditions that deserve our protection. This important legislation is not a solution in search of a problem. Bureaucratic threats to hunting, fishing and recreational shooting are very real. This bill has broad bipartisan support and the endorsement from over 36 sportsmen organizations. I commend the bipartisan sponsors of these packages of the bill and encourage my colleagues to support the legislation and i reserve. The chair the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio i yield myself such time as i may consume. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Defazio in the past i have voted for a number of sportsmens promotion and protection packages. Unfortunately, it seems that this one with a number of extraneous provisions and detrimental provisions to wilderness, wildlife refuges and other areas seems designed to turn what in the past has been a bipartisan consensus in favor of sportsmens issues into a partisan issue, which is what we do with most everything around here these days and thats unfortunate. Because we would be happy to address real problems as they are identified. In this bill, we are going to essentially amend or override the willed deerness act, National Environmental policy act, and these are all bedrock environmental provisions which protects public lands and wildlife and have not caused conflict for sportsmen, hunters and fishers and others. We have the throwaway political thing. The e. P. A. Said we dont have the authority to regulate lead and thats the end of it, but we are going to pass the law to say they dont have the authority to regulate lead. Ok. Thats fine. We have broad agreement that hunting, fishing and other wildlife dependent activities can and should and have and will ongoing take place in wildlife refuges and wilderness areas. There is so much agreement on this point that existing law clearly supports such activities as a result of hunting and fishing are popular. The vast majority of which outside of National Parks in the lower 48 are open to hunting and fishing. Whatever minor adjustments we might need to make, but to have a blanket exemption for operations in the National Wildlife refuge system from all Environmental Planning under nepa, purpose of such a broad waiver is unclear, the motivation is unclear. Its definitely and potentially or at least probably very cant say definitely, but it could well undermine management in refuges in ways that will actually degrade habitat, which will mean less hunting and fishing opportunities. Degrade water which means less hunting and fishing opportunities, and that seems contradictory to the meritorious title of the bill which doesnt seem to be reflective in the various parts, some of which have been through hearings, some of which havent. Now, the filming on public lands, i havent heard of the controversy. There are some who purport who say there might be some kind of problem who might do hunting, fishing videos, you know, films. Ive seen quite a few of them on public lands. Theres no example of a problem thats occurred, but the new authority with a fixed rate of a maximum of 200 for a permit no matter how much the impact might be of the film crew and further, to open the door for the use of motorized equipment in wilderness areas for these filming activities is very problematic and objectionable and unnecessary at this point. Again, there has been nothing brought up in a hearing of a credible complaint from a film company that couldnt do the wildlife film or hunting film because of restrictions that were placed upon them. It also would allow the construction of temporary roads. Now, i appreciate the fact that the managers amendment will prohibit permanent roads within wilderness areas that are designated necessary for access for hunting and fishing, but even temporary roads in wilderness areas for hunting and fishing are a clear and unnecessary degradeation of the existing wilderness act, and many horseback hunters or hunters who access on foot in my state, ive never been petitioned by them to open up roads into wilderness areas so they can better hunt. They are concerned about the ongoing review and closure of roads by the Forest Service and ive been actively involved in that. But in this case we can say, now, we can have temporary roads into wilderness areas, something no one has ever asked me or made the case was necessary for hunting. You know, so it is slightly improved from the early versions but were still concerned about temporary roads. And thats not something we want in our wilderness areas. I dont think that weakening or changing the definition of wilderness helps expand access for hunting or fishing nor of the opportunities in those areas. Also, the bill has some pretty glaring omissions that would actually tremendously benefit the sportsmen communities. That would be programs that support Wetlands Conservation, water servation, land, Conservation Fund which are key in expanding opportunities or protecting continued opportunities to hunt and fish as we see more and more urban encroachment onto traditional hunting and fishing areas. We could use those tools. We need those tools. Theyre both expired, and, you know, they are not allowed to be part of this package. There were various other amendments offered that we will get to later in the discussion that were not allowed that could have improved this package. So, you know, we will impthrough the amendment process, try and deal with some of the concerns, but, you know, at this point, as written and introduced i would urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. Id reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from michigan is ecognized. I want to yield to the gentleman from alaska for two minutes. The chair the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Young the provision in title 4 of 3590, the support of the fish and Wildlife Service to the president of the United States, this provision is a polar bear conservation and fairness act. Its a bipartisan measure that would make a very limited fix that would affect hunters nationwide. Prior to the threatened listing of the polar bear population on may 15, 2008, there were a number of hunters that took trips to canada. These hunters followed all the rules at the time and were prevented from bringing in their polar bear trophy due to the threatened listing triggering an importation ban under the Marine Mammal protection act. The legislation, my legislation, 3590, will allow the secretary of interior to issue permits to only those qualified hunters with legally taken polar bear trophies prior to the may listing date. This legislation would allow up to 41 hunters to import their trophies from canada. As a result, roughly 41,000 would be available to the United States, russia, polar bear Conservation Fund to support conservation activities for the share of polar bear population. This provision that would bring and reserve conservation activities that otherwise would not be funded. As a result, i urge the members to support this legislation and keep in fact these are dead polar bears in storage hunted legally under the premise of canadian law and United States law. This is a good part of this bill. By the way, speaking of this bill, it is a good bill. From the state of alaska, more parks and more refuges than any other state, the refuge the department allow to hunt. Park service dont allow us to hunt and im arguing that this park and refuge areas set aside for the refuge, managers themselves and not for the people of america, let alone the people of alaska. This legislation is the right way to go. Lets think about public lands, not the kings lands, not the administration lands but the land of the people. This bill is a good bill. I urge passage of this legislation. The chair the committee will rise informally to receive a message. The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair will receive a message. The messenger mr. Speaker, a message from the United States of the United States. The secretary mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore mr. Secretary. The secretary i am directed by the president of the United States to deliver to the house of representatives a message in writing. The speaker pro tempore the committee will resume its sitting. The chair the committee will be in order. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio id yield the gentleman from mississippi, cochair of the sportsman caucus, as much time as he might consume. The chair the gentleman from mississippi is recognized. Mr. Thompson thank you very much, mr. Speaker. Let me thank the Ranking Member of the committee, the gentleman from oregon, for allowing me to speak in support of this legislation even though he has reserved time in opposition. Mr. Speaker, i rise in support of h. R. 3590, the sportsmens heritage and recreational enhancement act of 2013. Todays bill is the product of the work of members of the bipartisan congressional sportsmens caucus which i serve as cochair. The congressional sportsmens caucus is the largest caucus in congress, boasting nearly 300 members. The caucus seeks to advance hunting, angling, shooting and trapping legislative priorities. Todays bill is comprised of eight individual bills that seeks to promote these interests. Mr. Speaker, not only is hunting and fishing a great passion for millions of individuals like myself, it is also a major contributor to the u. S. Economy. Mississippi, home to some of the worlds finest duck, whitetail and sports fishing, contributed 2. 2 billion to the economy in 2011 alone. My Congressional District receives scores of visitors each year, including some members of our this body who come to enjoy the vast Natural Resources that the mississippi delta has to offer. When these individuals visit mississippi, they hire local outfitters, stay in our hotels, eat at our restaurants, pay state hunting fees and purchase hunting gear, like primos brand hunting calls which are produced in my district in floral, mississippi. In fact, its been estimated that hunting and fishing supports 33,000 jobs in mississippi. Mr. Speaker, the bill before us today makes improvements to a wide range of issues, including the ability to purchase duck stamps online. Statutorily, it establishes the wildlife hunting and Heritage Council which was administratively formed by secretaries salazar and ville secretary in 2012. It vilsack in 2012. It will have target range construction and maintenance. Also, it excludes commercial ammo and fishing tackle from being classified as toxic substances, which the e. P. A. Has agreed. It also directs the secretary of interior and the secretary of agriculture to issue a permit and assess an annual fee for commercial filming crews of five people or fewer for activities on federal land and waterways administered by the secretary. It also allows lawabiding citizens to transport firearms across army corps of engineers projects, like the hundreds of miles of levees that i have in my district. It also opens more federal land to hunting and fishing. Mr. Speaker, while this bill makes to amend the strides to advance the needs of sportsmen, there are several other provisions that were not included in this bill that we must continue to push for and including an overhaul of the red snapper management of the gulf of mexico, the ability to convert decommissioned oil rigs to fish habitats and the reauthorization of the land and water Conservation Fund. I look forward to working with my colleagues to address these issues. Mr. Speaker, i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting h. R. 3590 and i yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from michigan is recognized. Mr. Benishek thank you. I yield two minutes to the gentleman from virginia, mr. Wittman. The chair the gentleman from virginia is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Wittman thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise to offer my support for h. R. 3590, the sportsmens heritage and recreational enhancement act of 2013, better known as the share act. And i commend my friend and cochair of the congressional sportsmens caucus, representative bob latta of ohio for his leadership in guiding this bill to the floor. Im also proud to join with the sportsmens caucus cochairs, both representative latta, representative Bennie Thompson of mississippi and vice chair, tim walz of minnesota, in support of this important bill. As a member of the Natural Resources committee, id also like to thank chairman doc hastings for his work in cooperation on behalf of americas sportsmen to support this legislation through the committee process. As a sportsman, im humbled to advocate for this community and help introduce this legislation to advance priorities for american anglingers, hunters and conservationists. This comprehensive package will expand opportunities for recreation, support fair treatment and modernize programs for sportsmen and includes a proposal i authored to allow migratory water fowl hunters to purchase their annual duck stamp online. As vice chair of the congressional sportsmens caucus i can proudly say this provision is important to water fowl hunters across america. The electron